Wednesday, September 17, 2008

How to put out a kitchen oil fire

My mother sent a video to our family about putting out a kitchen oil fire. I had heard that throwing water on an oil fire was a bad idea. This video shows exactly why this is a bad idea:



My mother's cousin explained what is going on:

"The water, being heavier than oil, sinks to the bottom where it instantly becomes superheated. The explosive force of the steam blows the burning oil up and out."

As water turns to steam it takes up about a thousand times as much volume. One cubic foot of water will turn into a thousand cubic feet of steam, or ten feet by ten feet by ten feet.

The end of the video is sobering.


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Technorati tags: kitchen, oil, fire

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